Meanings
- archaicPride.
Shaka has been betrayed by two of his generals, but they have merely succeeded in taking advantage of his orgueil, his pride, and his desire for omnipotence.
1971, Roy Temple House, Books Abroad2 more examples
Four times, with his orgueil, his love of magnificence, he condemned himself incongruously to the modern and familiar, groaning at every step over the horrible difficulty of reconciling "style " in such cases with truth and dialogue with surface.
1893, Henry James, Essays in London and Elsewhere, page 145Smet, in his second study of Verhaeren, [tries] to define the poet's attitude to Catholicism as one of Pride. It was his orgueil that weaned him from the faith and stood henceforth, an inexorable sentinel at the door of his heart, forbidding God to enter.
1926, Percy Mansell Jones, Verhaeren
Origin
- Frenchorgueil
- Proto-Germanic*uzgōljō
- Proto-West Germanic*uʀgōllju
- Vulgar Latin*orgollium
- Old Frenchorgueil
- Middle Englishorguile
- Englishorgueil
In older uses, from Middle English orguile, from Old French orgueil, from Vulgar Latin *orgollium, from Proto-West Germanic *uʀgōllju, from Proto-Germanic *uzgōljō. (Compare Old English orgol, orgel (“pride”). For more, see Old English or- (“out”) + *gōl (“boast; showiness; pomp; splendor”) / English gale (“sing”).) Cognate with Old High German urguol, urguoli, urgilo (“pride”) and Spanish orgullo. In modern uses sometimes a fresh borrowing from French orgueil.
More words from Middle English, Old French, Vulgar Latin
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
orgueil. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/orgueil
“orgueil.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/orgueil. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “orgueil,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/orgueil.
Source: orgueil on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.